After a two-year hiatus from competing in track and field events, the East Northumberland Secondary School (ENSS) track and field team from Brighton re-asserted its dominance at the Bay of Quinte Track and Field Championships in Belleville on Wednesday, May 11.
At the end of the day at the meet hosted at Bruce Faulds Track and Field facility inside Mary Anne Sills Park in Belleville the ENSS Blue Dragons captured their 36th consecutive overall team title at the Bay of Quinte meet. The Blue Dragons also secured the overall girls’ team championship and the overall boys’ title.
The Bay of Quinte championships attracted teams from 17 schools around the Bay of Quinte, including those from private and Catholic schools and as well as schools from Hastings and Prince Edward Counties.
According to ENSS track coach Anne Falla, after the school’s administration gave the go-ahead to run the track and field program at the school in March of this year, she was unsure how the team would come together after two years away due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
It turned out to be, however, another in a long line of winning efforts by the ENSS team at the Bay of Quinte championships.
“We were delighted. We hadn’t had a meet in Belleville since 2019 and so we were really starting from scratch this year when we got the team up and running. We finally had permission to have the team in March and we weren’t sure what to expect, we didn’t know if we would have a good turnout, we didn’t know if a lot of the tradition of track and field had been lost because of all the time away from it,” said Falla.
Falla gave us some insight on why Brighton has such a strong program.
A total of 76 individual ENSS athletes and 15 relay teams qualified for the Central Ontario Secondary Schools Association (COSSA) championship in Peterborough on Thursday, May 19.
Individual Bay of Quinte champions by age division are below:
NOVICE
• Annabelle Jouwstra – first in javelin (20.27m) and third in shot put (7.40m)
• Hailey McMurter – first in high jump (1.30m), third in long jump (4.00m) and fourth in 100m (14.51)
• Ethan Miklos – first in 3000m (11:46) and fourth in both 800m and 1500m
JUNIOR
• Ava Allanson – first in 200m (28.80) and
high jump (1.35m) and third in 80m hurdles (15.06)
• Sydney Woodcock – first in 100m (13.70) and second in both 200m (29.05) and 400m (1:08)
• Aidan Molenhuis – first in high jump (1.75 m), second in 100m hurdles (17.55) and third in 300m hurdles (49.08)
• Brayden Clark – first in 100m (11.73) and third in both 200 m (25.03) and long jump (5.72 m)
• Marrek Hennessy – first in 200 m (26.83)
SENIOR
• Zack Flatt – first in both discus (33.61m) and shot put (12.29m)
• Halle Woodcock – first in both 200m (28.74) and 400m (1:06)
• Matthew Parker – first in 400m (55.15) and fourth in 200 m (24.54)
• Josh Warner – first in 400m hurdles (1:03)
ENSS coaches and athletes thanked the school and community volunteers who made the Bay of Quinte meet run smoothly.
A top-five effort by ENSS athletes in their respective events at the COSSA championship will enable them to quality for the East Regionals in Ottawa on May 26 and 27.
(Written by: Alan Rivett)